My AttCallvantage VoIP places calls, but calls from outside the ATT
system cannot reach us. IT HAS BEEN SIX DAYS!

We have children and elderly who may need to reach us. Is there no way
too get this problem elevated to "fix now!."?

Windows xp; Linksys router; Dlink TA; Motorolla modem; Comcast cable.

rick merrill at comcast . net

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your first paragraph gives a clue to
follow up on: 'Calls from outside the AT&T system cannot reach us.'
What does this mean exactly? Have you experienced this at all, that
is known calls you make do not get back to you on your VOIP. Is
'outside the AT&T system' referring to other (non-AT&T) voip lines
or other landline phones or? The person(s) who try to call you, are
they getting an intercept message saying call cannot be completed,
or a re-order (fast busy) tone? Or is it ringing 'open', that is the
call 'gets through' to your local phone switch but does not actually
reach your phone, or ? If the caller is getting intercepted either by
a message or reorder tone and they are outside your LATA it may be
that AT&T (in the process of opening a new exchange for their VOIP
phones) failed to get it correctly listed in the 'tables' that other
carriers use indicating your VOIP exchange is a working exchange.

I experienced this once. Tried to reach a lady in northern Wisconsin
using my land line (defaulted to MCI for long distance). Every
attempt, I got an intercept recording 'not in service.' On a hunch, I
tried dialing 10288 *first*, forcing the call over AT&T, and then it
went through okay. Same central office both times, but MCI did not
have it in their routing tables as a valid exchange, thus, refused to
pass the call along. I tried explaining it to repair and the business
office, but go nowhere. Finally I spoke to a lady who said "I sort of
think I know what you are talking about; give me a number to reach you
at, I am going to have someone call you back." About 30 minutes later
I got a call from a man who identified himself as a 'network technican
for AT&T', in of all places, Denver, CO. He said he knew *exactly* what
the problem was ... (I said) "yeah but can you get MCI to make the
changes required." Oh yeah, he said, they will listen to me, they
will do as I say. I will call you back in 30 minutes or so. Sure
enough, it got fixed.

As he explained it to me, Illinois Bell (local central office) handled
'translations' for AT&T and got it correct. In theory, whenever a new
central office opens, word of same is supposed to travel around the
network so that other phone companies can 'turn it on' also in their
switches. Sometimes one or another of them fail to do so, or do it
incorrectly. He told me, "MCI tried to turn it on also, but got a
comma or white space or something wrong in their file, so as far as
their switch was concerned, that exchange did not exist." When I forced
the call (via 10288) Illinois Bell, AT&T and Wisconsin Telephone all
got it correct. When I did one plus default through MCI (Illinois Bell
to MCI), it bounced.

When I *finally* reached the lady I was calling in Wisconsin all she
knew was 'many times, my friends in Chicago cannot reach me, but
others get through okay' (the ones using Sprint or AT&T).

So ask your family/friends/whoever that is 'not on AT&T system' to
try calling your VOIP. If *they* (or some of them) get through just
fine, try and isolate the number they used and the telco they used.
Also, I assume you have used your own landline phone or cell phone
to try calling the VOIP and see if you get through to yourself or
not. Let us know how your experiments and tests work out. This may
not be the fault of CallVantage at all, but rather some telco (even
AT&T!) failing to install that phone number/exchange in the 'tables'
for others to see. And please explain what you mean by 'cannot get
through to me on VOIP phone'. *At what point* does their call bounce
back? PAT]